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Park was reduced to about one acre, consider- 
ably smaller than a good neighborhood park 
should be. 
   Fortunately, Arthur Bohnen offered to sell 
to the city three lots he owned west of Oak 
Street, about 600 feet along Laudan Boule- 
vard, and adjoining the new school property. 
How he got title to land that had belonged to 
the City since 1856 is not clear, but Bohnen 
did sell the land back to the city for about 
$4000. This accounts for the present two acre 
size of Laudan Park. 
   The shelter in Laudan Park was designed 
and built in 1965 by the Superintendent of 
Parks, Tom Baer, and his crew. 
A Christmas Gift to Ourselves-Riverside Park 
L umberman Henry Sherry loved the Fox 
     River; that much was clear. He had 
        built his very successful new sawmill 
and lumber yard on the south banks of the 
river on Wisconsin Avenue. He owned more 
than 100 acres of choice waterfront property 
along the Fox River and Lake Winnebago at 
the point where the Fox River leaves the 
Lake. These sizable land-holdings gave him 
an idea. 
   Early in 1872 he made an offer to the 
Neenah Village Board to sell fifteen to twenty 
acres of land on Warner's Point, immediately 
adjacent to Wisconsin Avenue, for a public 
park. Further, he proposed "to lay out and 
construct a drive, turnpiked and graveled, 
along the shore of Lake Winnebago from near 
the ice house [present site of Rec Park] to the 
Old Council Tree [west of the present Light 
House], following down the bank of the river 
and intersecting the park grounds, a distance 
of a mile and a quarter around." 
   Henry Sherry's offer provoked much de- 
bate, and the Village Board handled the offer 
like a political hot potato-with great caution. 
Some citizens thought the price of $4400 
($220 per acre) was way too high, especially 
for something as frivolous as a park. 
   Far-sighted citizens like John Proctor (half- 
owner of Neenah's biggest flour mill) braved 
the criticism of many of his contemporaries. 
He strongly supported buying waterfront land 
for a public park. 
   It was said of him later that "more than to 
any other citizen of his time, belongs the 
credit for saving for all time this choice 
property for the benefit and enjoyment of 
.4 
John Proctor 
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